Green death: sustainability and the administration of the dead

Abstract

This article explores changing American death care – the handling of the dead body and its materiality beyond death – in the context of US-based power relations over administration of human remains. The article briefly surveys efforts to make the afterlife of the dead more ‘sustainable’. I argue that this expanding governance entails intensified bioremediation: the reuse and reprocessing of dead bodies/parts, intensified forms of material-biological extraction, and the conversion of afterlife to forms of biovalue beyond death. First, some disposal efforts encourage an economy of body/parts and a utilitarian ethic of ‘no remains’. Accordingly, the afterlife is not ‘the end’ but a renewable material resource and opportunity to economize the body in death and put the dead body to work. Second, a range of practices now reimagine death as an opportunity for personal legacy and redeem the dead body’s decomposition as natural/as part of the natural world. Bioremediation in this case conceptually recuperates death into life so that death is not wasted; instead, the corpse serves as a material input for nature and a vehicle for personal ‘biopresence’. The article then considers some of the paradoxes and costs of greening the dead and outlines future research directions that might advance our understanding of the ways new sustainable disposal and commemorative technologies of the dead entrench racism and impact civil, consumer, and environmental rights. How bodies affect our environments today will impact people and landscapes in years to come. Because US governance of the dead has historically entailed the differential treatment of bodies after life, the article critically reflects on ‘death equity’ issues that operate across the living and the dead. The article concludes by querying how conduct for the dead might advance social justice through a material politics of human remains.

Up in smoke or down with worms? older adult environmentalist’s discourse on disposal, dispersal, and (green) burial

“…97-119). Under the umbrella of cremation, we can discuss people's choice to donate their body to science as eventually that body will be cremated (Krupar, 2018). When donating one's body to science, you can almost hear the capital-S in Science.…”

Cemeteries as (un)wanted heritage of previous communities. An example of changes in the management of cemeteries and their social perception in Gdańsk, Poland

“…gravestones, columbaria), the treatment of bodies is worth looking into. Changes in burial practices, modern customs or anticipating future trends are also very important issues from the social point of view (Rugg & Parsons, 2018;Krupar, 2017 Tudor et al (2013) examining the relationship between cemeteries and residential areas in Bucharest. This type of research conducted by planners regardless of location can contribute to counteracting potential spatial conflicts in the event of changes in the use of a given area.…”

Hidden labour in funeral directing: providing care to ‘difficult’ dead bodies

“…First, we develop on the concept of the difficult dead, which we use to drive forward discussions that integrate death studies and criminology together. Certainly, the corpse has steadily received more interest in the social sciences in the past decade (Krupar, 2018;Moon, 2014;Olson, 2014;Schrift, 2016;Troyer, 2008), showing it to be a rich point of analysis. This is further demonstrated by the focus that human remains have had in recent global empirical projects, such as Claire Moon's 2018-2021 Humanitarianism and the Politics of the Grave (2018Grave ( -2021, and Sarah Tarlow's Wellcome Trust Project: The Archaeology of the Criminal Corpse.…”